


Talk To Me

by eating_custardinbed



Series: The Internet Made Me Write It [2]
Category: IT Crowd
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, I promise nothing too bad happens, M/M, One Shot, Potential Triggers, Present Tense, Short, Short One Shot, Suggestive Themes, Triggers, angsty, but not fully, non-con elements, request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:08:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27350992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eating_custardinbed/pseuds/eating_custardinbed
Summary: Roy has become bitter and, well, rather prickly, and Moss is trying to find out why he is acting so out-of-character all of a sudden
Relationships: Maurice Moss/Roy Trenneman
Series: The Internet Made Me Write It [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1990789
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Talk To Me

**Author's Note:**

> this was a request from an anon on tumblr. I hope you enjoy this!!

It has been three weeks since Moss has seen Roy smile. 

Normally Roy smiles rather a lot. The Roy that Moss knows is a very smiley person. He smiles when his coffee is just right, he smiles when they get through the day with hardly a call, and he especially smiles when he looks at Moss. Secretly, Moss enjoys the attention rather a lot, although he’d never tell Roy this: it would go straight to his head. 

But for the last three weeks, something has been wrong with Roy. Moss can’t quite put his finger on what, but it just... isn’t right. He hasn’t smiled at all, that’s for one. Every date that the two of them are supposed to have had Roy has cancelled at the last minute, citing terrible excuses that even _Moss_ doesn’t believe. He’s hardly been at work either. Jen has been beside her wit with the high call volume and only Moss in the office able to deal with them. When he has been in the office he has been worse than useless, simply sitting there in a funk barely saying a word to anyone.

Moss is determined to get answers. Over the weekend he’s had nothing but radio silence from his boyfriend on every single possible platform. No replies to his texts, no calls back, no... anything. He hasn’t even been online on his consoles, an incredibly unusual occurrence for Roy. 

It is now Wednesday, and Roy has finally come into work for the first time this week— albeit two hours late. 

After Jen chews him out, Roy mopes over to his desk and sits down. He doesn’t even acknowledge Moss. This is incredibly strange: even though he’s been in a funk and he hasn’t been answering calls or messages, he always acknowledges Moss if they see each other, even if just by a wave of the hand or a small nod.

Moss turns his head to the side, confused. What? Why is Roy ignoring him? Knowing that he needs answers more than ever, Moss stands from his desk and goes over. Roy doesn’t look up from where he is staring at his desk. Once again, Moss is confused. He goes up behind Roy, gently coughing a little to alert his boyfriend to his presence before wrapping his arms around the Irishman’s shoulders in a hug. 

The reaction is instant. Roy makes a strange yowling noise that Moss has never heard him make before and pulls away, looking back at Moss with a strange look on his face. Moss stands slowly, his confusion mounting even more. The two of them stare at each other. 

"What's going on?" Moss asks. Roy makes a small noise, shrugging and looking down at his desk. "Roy, talk to me," Moss says, coming forward and resting his hand on his boyfriend's shoulder. 

"For God's sake, just leave me alone!" Roy snaps. At the same time he pulls away from Moss, who stumbles back a little. "You're pissing me off, alright!? Stop being so bloody needy all the time and fuck off!" 

Well, Moss knows he doesn't need more telling than that. Pursing his lips together, he tries to suppress the tears he can feel welling up as he goes back over to his own desk. he can feel Roy glaring at him. Has he done something? Has he accidentally said something just not quite right? He sniffs, still trying to hold back the tears. God, he feels silly. He feels like he shouldn't be crying at this. After a moment, he hears Roy huff, and then he flies past him out of the office. The door slams behind him. 

"What the hell--" Jen says as she comes in from her office. She stops when she sees Moss staring at his desk with tears starting to run down his cheeks. She scurries over, putting her hand on his shoulders. "Hey, hey, why are there tears?" 

"It's nothing," Moss replies, although the break in his voice gives away his lie. 

"Sweetheart, I heard the way he talked to you. That's not on." 

"It's fine," Moss manages to say. The second the words leave his mouth he seems to lose all decorum and lowers his head, letting out a sob. Jen makes a sympathetic noise, reaching forward and pulling him into an awkward one-armed hug. They stay like this for a few minutes, allowing Moss to get all of his emotions out and then recompose himself. When they part, he is wiping his eyes. 

"What is going on with him?" Jen asks as she stands and walks towards the closed office door. Upon instinct, she opens it. Moss shrugs whilst taking his glasses off and cleaning them on his tie. 

"He's been off for ages now," he says, his voice still a little broken. Jen nods in agreement. 

"Is he going to come back?" 

"I don't know." 

As it transpires, Roy does reappear about two hours later. He is visibly drunk, his hair dishevelled and his shirt damp with what Moss only hopes is beer or water. The second he walks in, Jen storms over to him and slaps him across the face. Roy is so intoxicated that it barely seems to register to him, and all he does is stare as she glares at him before going into her office and slamming the door behind her. The Irishman giggles a little (still with no smile in sight), stumbling over to his boyfriend's desk. 

"Hiya," he says. Moss murmurs a similar greeting back. Roy laughs again, reaching over and trying to kiss him. Moss moves out of the way. This does not seem to phase Roy, who simply tries again. "Come on-n-n-n!" 

At this, Moss stands and moves away. He knows that he needs to remove himself from this situation before something bad happens. _Roy is drunk,_ he reminds himself, _he's not in his right mind, he does not mean any of this._

"You were up for it this morning," Roy says. His words are slurring together now. He smiles. It is his first smile in three weeks, but it is not the smile Moss has wanted to see. It is a malicious smile, full of arrogance and selfishness. Roy lurches forward, coming so close to Moss that the slightly shorter man can feel his boyfriend's breath on his face. The best way Moss can describe Roy's look is _leery_. He whimpers a little, closing his eyes as Roy runs a finger along his cheek. "Come on, Moss." 

"You're drunk," Moss whispers. Roy doesn't seem to hear him, his finger running down Moss' cheekbone onto his neck and then down his chest. 

"Kiss me." 

"I don't want to." 

"Of course you do!" 

"Stop," Moss mumbles. Roy's finger is getting lower now, nearly at his stomach. Roy ignores him as he carries on. "Stop." Lower. "Roy, stop." Lower still. "Stop!" His hand is on his belt buckle. "STOP!" 

The shout seems to work in bringing Roy back into the present. His hand abruptly vanishes and Roy moves away from where he has essentially been pinning Moss up against the back corner wall. Moss is virtually hyperventilating, trembling with his hands hovering above his head. The shout has summoned Jen too, who rushes in from her office to see the scene before her. She pushes Roy further away from Moss, standing between the two of them. 

"What the _hell_ is going on!?" she yells, the question mostly aimed at Roy. At the same time she goes over to Moss, gently putting her hands over his. This seems to help calm him a little, as he lowers his hands a bit, his eyes opening slightly. Jen turns back to Roy, who is staring at the floor. "Well?" 

"I dunno," Roy says. He says it quietly. Jen scoffs, shaking her head. 

"For God's sake, go home," she tells him. "You better be here at nine on the dot tomorrow tomorrow, and you better be sober!" 

Roy nods. He gathers some of his things, and less than a minute later he is gone. 

Jen turns back to Moss. He is still shaking, but he looks less like a frightened animal you'd find in your garden. "Are you okay?" she asks. Moss pauses. 

"I... I don't know," he says. 

"Has he ever done anything like that before?" 

Moss shakes his head. 

"No, never." He pauses again, smiling as if recalling some long-forgotten happy memory. "If there's one thing Roy's good at it's boundaries." 

"I'll take your word for it," she sighs. She runs her hand over her face. "Look, you can go home too. There's only a few hours left anyway and just... yeah. I'll see you tomorrow." 

Moss nods, grateful for the out. 

It takes him over an hour and a half to get home. None of the cabs stop for him, and then the tube is late, meaning he just misses his bus by a hair's breadth. That means waiting thirty minutes for the next one to come (which is inevitably late), then traffic and then the ten minute walk back to his house. His mother seems shocked to see him home so early, asking far too many questions for his liking. He shrugs, murmuring some terrible excuse before escaping upstairs to his room. 

He doesn't eat that night, unable to force himself out of his bed. Even if he is able to get up, he doubts he could fit any food in his stomach with all the anxiety he has swirling around in there. His mother comes up to check on him a couple of times, but he pretends to be asleep. He does not have the energy for her questioning, not tonight. 

The next morning he wakes early as so not to wake his mother. He changes quietly, not bothering to eat breakfast before starting the arduous journey to work. It is even worse in the morning with the white collar workers rushing around, packing the Underground with their coffee and their heat and their loud phone calls. It takes Moss all he has (and a little fiddling with the straps of his backpack) not to get overwhelmed. 

When he gets to work, he expects it to be empty. Of course, with his luck, this is not the case. There are a few people roaming around, and when he gets to the office Jen is sitting on the sofa, watching the news with her feet up on the coffee table and clutching a coffee. She turns when she hears him come in. 

"You look peaky," is the first thing she says to him. 

"Morning," Moss mumbles back. He isn't exactly sure what to say. His brain is a little foggy and somehow he still feels half-asleep. Jen narrows her eyes at him. He stares down at his bag as he puts it on his desk and starts to unpack it. 

"Have you eaten today?" 

Moss shakes his head. He hears Jen sigh heavily. "No wonder you're so down," she says. A second later a cereal bar is being pushed into his hands. "Eat, sweetheart. It'll do you some good." 

"Thank you," he says quietly, managing to shoot her a small smile. She smiles back at him. 

When Roy walks into the office (at precisely nine as Jen had said), however, all smiles drop. 

"Right, we are sorting this out once and for all," Jen announces firmly once everyone is (somewhat) comfortable. They nod. Roy hangs his head. "Starting with yesterday." With this, Jen rounds on Roy with a more furious look than Moss had ever seen on anyone ever. "What the _hell_ were you thinking!? Getting drunk and then coming back and doing _that_?" 

"I don't know," Roy whispers. He is staring at the ground. Then after a moment, he looks up at Moss. He has a sincere look in his eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, or make you do something you didn't want to. I should have stopped the first time you asked me to. And I'm sorry about what I said to you yesterday. I didn't mean it. Of course you're not needy. " 

"Thank you for apologising," Moss replies. He leans forward a little, resting his hand on his boyfriend's knee. "But please, tell me what's going on with you? You've been scaring me." 

"I... I don't know." 

Now, this is not the reply neither Moss nor Jen has been expecting. Jen has been expecting some shitty excuse, whilst Moss has been waiting for some elaborate description with one final dramatic flourish. The two of them glanced at each other. 

"What do you mean you don't know?" Jen asks gently. She too leans forward slightly. Roy shrugs. He looks back down at his lap. 

"I dunno, it's just..." He pauses, sighing frustratedly. Moss reaches forward, taking his boyfriend's hand. Roy smiles shyly at him, giving his hand a grateful squeeze. "It's like nothing matters anymore and I just wanna go and get drunk and forget about everything. I can barely force myself out of bed, and I just don't wanna do... well, anything. It's like a blanket that traps you down and doesn't let you out." He pauses, shrugging again. Jen looks a little harrowed, whilst Moss is simply starting to look upset. "It's okay. 'S something that just happens sometimes." 

"Roy, that's not normal," Jen says softly. Roy looks up, chuckling a little nervously. 

"What?" he says. "Yeah it is!" 

"No, it isn't," Moss chimes in. Roy looks between them, confused. 

"What?" he repeats. His voice cracks a little. Jen gives him a sympathetic look, whilst Moss shifts closer to him. 

"It's okay," Jen says. 

"We're here for you," Moss adds with a small smile. He squeezes Roy's hand. "We'll get through this together." 

"Together?" Roy asks. He is on the verge of tears. Moss smiles, nodding. 

"Together."

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! please leave comments and/or kudos 
> 
> stay safe and happy yall xx


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